The Twilight Zone/Nightmare Fuel: Difference between revisions

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* The dream sequences of "Perchance to Dream" with the freaky looking amusement park, the [[Femme Fatale]] with that eerie, seductive voice, and finally the climax where the guy sees the woman from his nightmare. Even the premise is a nightmare in itself

* No matter how cheesy the monster on the plane from "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" may look nowadays, it's always a shock when William Shatner's character slowly reaches for the curtain in front of the window on the airplane... {{spoiler|then pulls it back really quick and the monster is RIGHT THERE WITH ITS FACE AGAINST THE WINDOW!}}

** [[The Movie]] remake takes this [[Up to Eleven]] because [[John Lithgow]]'s eyes {{spoiler|bulge out in a creepy way}} when he sees the gremlin (which incidentally looks like a mini [[Alien (~~Film~~)|Predator]]).

** [[The Movie]] remake takes this [[Up to Eleven]] because [[John Lithgow]]'s eyes {{spoiler|bulge out in a creepy way}} when he sees the gremlin (which incidentally looks like a mini [[Alien (franchise)|Predator]]).

* The episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33" is full of [[Fridge Horror]]. A jumbo jet full of passengers somehow travels back in time, once to where they go back to the dinosaur era and again when they go back to the 1930's. It ends with the pilot trying to get the plane to travel forward in time, but there's no way of knowing when they'll end up. Take into account that their fuel and food will eventually run out, and you've got some horrific implications.

* "The Shadow Man" from the '80s [[Revival]] is... rather frightening. In short there are [[Living Shadow|Living Shadows]] under (it's implied) [[Things That Go Bump in ~~The~~ Night|everyone's bed]]. The Shadow Man shown is completely cloaked in darkness (as you'd expect), is very tall, has an freaky rasping voice, and is reminiscent of Freddy Krueger (maybe it's the hat). And it appears that whenever it wants to it can emerge from under your bed, and though ''it'' won't harm you anyone else's Shadow Man can happily try to kill you... {{spoiler|which is what happens to the main character of the episode}}.

* "The Shadow Man" from the '80s [[Revival]] is... rather frightening. In short there are [[Living Shadow|Living Shadows]] under (it's implied) [[Things That Go Bump in the Night|everyone's bed]]. The Shadow Man shown is completely cloaked in darkness (as you'd expect), is very tall, has an freaky rasping voice, and is reminiscent of Freddy Krueger (maybe it's the hat). And it appears that whenever it wants to it can emerge from under your bed, and though ''it'' won't harm you anyone else's Shadow Man can happily try to kill you... {{spoiler|which is what happens to the main character of the episode}}.

* "The Midnight Sun", where the earth has fallen out of its elliptical orbit and is about to be consumed by the sun. Think of it this way: Everyone on the planet spends their last hours ''burning to death''. {{spoiler|At the end of the episode, it's revealed that the scenario was [[All Just a Dream]], caused by the main character's dangerously high fever. So everything's okay... Until her doctor and neighbor start talking about how the earth has moved out of its elliptical orbit ''away'' from the sun and will completely freeze over in a number of years. *shudder* }}

** The part where the woman screams and everything in the room just starts ''melting''...

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* "Time Enough At Last" features Burgess Meredith as a meek clerk who loves to read, but never has the time to... Until a nuclear blast kills everyone else in the world. First, the episode plays on our [[Primal Fear]] of loneliness, and second, there's the famous ending where his glasses slip off his nose and shatter, with him shouting, "It's not fair! There was ''time'' now!" [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on whether the ending is scary or unintentionally hilarious, though, but the idea of being ''completely alone for the rest of your life'', on top of not being able to see... Brrr.

** [[Your Mileage May Vary]], indeed -- you may prefer to see it as a [[Tear Jerker]].

** The ''[[~~Futurama (Animation)|~~Futurama]]'' parody is [[It Got Worse]]. He says he can still read the large print books. His eyes fall out. He can still read Braille. His hands fall off. Then, IIRC, [[And I Must Scream|his tongue falls out]]. Then his head falls off, which, at that point, is a mercy.

** The ''[[Futurama]]'' parody is [[It Got Worse]]. He says he can still read the large print books. His eyes fall out. He can still read Braille. His hands fall off. Then, IIRC, [[And I Must Scream|his tongue falls out]]. Then his head falls off, which, at that point, is a mercy.

* The TOS episode "It's a Good Life" features a 6 year old boy with [[Physical God|god-like abilities]]. When he was born he isolated his hometown away from the rest of the world, cutting off electricity, automobiles and the like. He can create and destroy, as well as read minds. Everyone must be happy and have happy thoughts, or they are [[Fate Worse Than Death|sent to the cornfield]].

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* "Spur of the Moment" where a young woman on horseback sees an older woman on a horse at the top of a hill, dressed in black, raising her cape like the wing of a vulture and chasing after her. It's even more terrifying when it's revealed {{spoiler|it's her future self trying to warn her not to marry the wrong man and ruining her life. In retrospect, she probably shouldn't have yelled like a banshee at her younger self!}}

* The ending of "A Kind of Stopwatch". The main character was kind of a [[Jerkass]], but he still didn't deserve to be {{spoiler|trapped forever in a frozen moment of time where nothing moves}}. The more you consider the [[Fridge Horror]] of it the scarier it gets.

** Trivia: The actor would later play Leonard on ''[[~~Community (TV)|~~Community]]''!

** Trivia: The actor would later play Leonard on ''[[Community]]''!

* "To Serve Man": how the Kanamit ambassador beat the lie detector test. {{spoiler|[[Fridge Brilliance|Their race do not find anything wrong with eating humans]]}}.

** Well, {{spoiler|[[Half Truth|technically they weren't there to harm humans... but it would suck for those humans that ''do'' get eaten]]}}.

** ''[[The Simpsons (~~Animation~~)|The Simpsons]]''' parody ended with the humans thinking that the book was a {{spoiler|guide to cooking humans}}, when it was actually a {{spoiler|guide to cooking for humans}}. Now watch the episode again, at the part where the woman screamed " {{spoiler|IT'S A COOKBOOK!}}"

** ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''' parody ended with the humans thinking that the book was a {{spoiler|guide to cooking humans}}, when it was actually a {{spoiler|guide to cooking for humans}}. Now watch the episode again, at the part where the woman screamed " {{spoiler|IT'S A COOKBOOK!}}"

* "Elegy". {{spoiler|The robot caretaker of the asteroid cemetery kills the astronauts because [[Humans Are Bastards|men are incapable of peace.]]}}.

** {{spoiler|And all of the people in the model town standing around and not moving are actual dead bodies of real people.}}

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* In "The Grave," gunman Conny Miller pursues outlaw Pinto Sykes for a bounty - only to find three men beat him to the punch. A displeased Miller then learns that Sykes threatened him in the end, vowing to rise up and grab him from the grave. This leads to a dare to go the grave at night, with sticking a knife into the ground as proof of visit. Miller seems afraid, but fulfills the dare {{spoiler|only to mysteriously fall over and not return the next day. The three men go to the grave to find out what happened and are joined by Sykes' sister Ione. They find Miller's body over the grave, his body pinned by a knife through his coattail. One of the men comes up with a perfectly rational explanation: the wind blew the coattail over the grave, it was caught accidentally by the knife and the resulting tug Miller would've felt scared him further - leading to a fatal heart attack. All so rational, but the wind was blowing the opposite direction as pointed out by Ione, who knows the truth and laughs as we leave the graveyard}}.

* The original series episode "The Invaders," with the tiny astronauts going after the old woman.

* I recall one episode where a mentally handicapped child had the ability to "summon" any object he sees in a picture. Near the end of the episode a social worker comes because she suspects abuse, but the father explains the horrific side of his son's ability: He saw a puppy on television and tried to summon it, but the resulting puppy was dead. The father had buried it and dozens of other dead animals the child had "summoned." As the social worker leaves, the child sees a picture of his dead mother. He grabs it and tries to summon his mother, only for a disturbing, decomposing corpse of his mother to appear in a chair across the room. The father comforts the son, saying, "Don't worry, I'll go in to the back and take care of it," as he sobs into his sons shoulder. It ends {{spoiler|with the social worker returning with police backup to take custody of the boy. The father (fearing for his son's welfare if his powers were known) takes out an encyclopedia and [[Kill It ~~With~~ Fire|has the son reduce the house to ashes by trying to "summon" a picture of a fire.]]}}

* I recall one episode where a mentally handicapped child had the ability to "summon" any object he sees in a picture. Near the end of the episode a social worker comes because she suspects abuse, but the father explains the horrific side of his son's ability: He saw a puppy on television and tried to summon it, but the resulting puppy was dead. The father had buried it and dozens of other dead animals the child had "summoned." As the social worker leaves, the child sees a picture of his dead mother. He grabs it and tries to summon his mother, only for a disturbing, decomposing corpse of his mother to appear in a chair across the room. The father comforts the son, saying, "Don't worry, I'll go in to the back and take care of it," as he sobs into his sons shoulder. It ends {{spoiler|with the social worker returning with police backup to take custody of the boy. The father (fearing for his son's welfare if his powers were known) takes out an encyclopedia and [[Kill It with Fire|has the son reduce the house to ashes by trying to "summon" a picture of a fire.]]}}